Nick Tavares: Pedro a welcome addition to Sox

Saving October, there is likely no greater time to be a baseball fan than late February and early March. Spring Training is nothing but sunny skies, high hopes and the first signs that, maybe, not every weekend will be greeted with a snowstorm.

Comment

By Nick Tavares

southcoasttoday.com

By Nick Tavares

Posted Feb. 24, 2013 at 9:35 AM
Updated Feb 24, 2013 at 9:41 AM

By Nick Tavares

Posted Feb. 24, 2013 at 9:35 AM
Updated Feb 24, 2013 at 9:41 AM

» Social News

Saving October, there is likely no greater time to be a baseball fan than late February and early March. Spring Training is nothing but sunny skies, high hopes and the first signs that, maybe, not every weekend will be greeted with a snowstorm.

And, what better way to complement that built-in enthusiasm than the sight of Pedro Martinez, arguably the greatest pitcher in Boston baseball history, in camp with the team, donning a navy Red Sox cap?

In his first season as a special assistant to general manager Ben Cherington, the measurable difference that Martinez will make on the Red Sox this season is probably impossible to pinpoint. There are plenty who buy into the school of thought that a manager doesn't matter much on a baseball team; where a former pitcher working in spring training falls must be somewhere below that mark.

But the idea that coaches and managers don't matter is garbage. Anyone who has had an especially great or terrible boss can attest to that. Performance ultimately falls upon the player, but motivation and guidance can mean a world of difference.

And this is where having Martinez in camp, along with his greatest battery mate, Jason Varitek, could be so pivotal. In addition to the on-the-job training this gives Martinez should he decide to progress farther up the ladder in the front office, he'll be doling out his advice to a pitching staff that was desperate for a steady hand last season.

“It's an empty feeling that you get inside of you because there's nothing you can do from the front of TV,”he told reporters at camp last week on watching the 2012 Red Sox.“The few games that I stopped to watch at Fenway it was painful to see the chemistry wasn't there, the team wasn't doing what they were supposed to.”

His influence was already made apparent on Felix Doubront, who didn't think he'd shown up to camp out of shape, but Martinez publicly disagreed. Doubront, only 25 years old and on the verge of a solid Major League career, is exactly the kind of player who could benefit from a guy like Martinez.

He's not a cure-all, obviously. There's likely no saving Alfredo Aceves, and all the expertise and kind words won't necessarily help Daniel Bard regain his control of the strikezone.Those are responsibilities that will ultimately fall on pitching coach Juan Nieves and the players themselves. Martinez will return to the front office once camp breaks.

But in the meantime, his presence in Fort Myers signals a path back towards respectability on the field, a baseball team bringing in a great baseball mind in the hopes that he can contribute towards wins on the field. The Red Sox have made a number of blunders in that department in the past two seasons, whether it was bringing in an awful manager, the underachieving players or simply players whose personalities didn't fit. A shift back to the old ways can't be as bad a move as any other they've made.

And, finally, there's a fan aspect to all this, too. In scrolling through photos from spring training, seeing Pedro smiling, spinning his arms, playing catch and talking to players in a navy blue Red Sox jacket just felt right. In the same way that his exit to the NewYork Mets before the 2005 season felt blunt and cold, his return is a homecoming.

There's plenty to be crotchety about in sports. Players come and go, owners are out of touch, everything is too expensive. Having Pedro Martinez back in Boston, helping the team to regain its former glory, can be a small antidote to that.

It's not a lot, and it might not be measurable, but I'll take it every time.

Nick Tavares' column appears Sunday in The Standard-Times and at SouthCoastToday.com. He can be reached at nick@nicktavares.com